Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Surg. May 27, 2023; 15(5): 812-824
Published online May 27, 2023. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v15.i5.812
Distribution of splenic artery lymph nodes and splenic hilar lymph nodes
Yuya Umebayashi, Satoru Muro, Masanori Tokunaga, Toshifumi Saito, Yuya Sato, Toshiro Tanioka, Yusuke Kinugasa, Keiichi Akita
Yuya Umebayashi, Masanori Tokunaga, Toshifumi Saito, Yuya Sato, Toshiro Tanioka, Yusuke Kinugasa, Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo 113-8519, Japan
Satoru Muro, Keiichi Akita, Department of Clinical Anatomy, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo 113-8519, Japan
Author contributions: Umebayashi Y, Muro S, Tokunaga M, Saito T, Sato Y, Tanioka T, Kinugasa Y and Akita K designed and coordinated the study; Umebayashi Y, Muro S and Saito T acquired data; Umebayashi Y and Muro S analyzed data; Umebayashi Y, Muro S, Sato Y, Tokunaga M and Akita K interpreted the data; Umebayashi Y, Muro S, Tokunaga M and Akita K drafted the manuscript; all authors approved the final version of the article.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board at Tokyo Medical and Dental University.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors have nothing to disclose.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Masanori Tokunaga, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, 1-5-45 Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8519, Japan. tokunaga.srg1@tmd.ac.jp
Received: December 28, 2022
Peer-review started: December 28, 2022
First decision: February 4, 2023
Revised: February 18, 2023
Accepted: April 7, 2023
Article in press: April 7, 2023
Published online: May 27, 2023
Core Tip

Core Tip: Recently, laparoscopic spleen-preserving splenic hilar lymph node (LN) dissection (SPSHLD) has emerged as a viable alternative to splenectomy for advanced proximal gastric cancer with greater curvature invasion. However, laparoscopic SPSHLD has been observed to leave behind the posterior splenic hilar LNs. In this study, we aimed to clarify the distribution of splenic hilar and splenic artery LNs by examining cadavers, and to evaluate the possibility of omitting posterior LN dissection in laparoscopic SPSHLD from an anatomical perspective. Our findings revealed that the number of posterior LNs increased towards the hilum and was not negligible. Therefore, it is crucial for surgeons to consider that some posterior LNs may remain after SPSHLD.